The Taynor Brothers

As usual, I haven't blogged in forever.  I missed Patrick's 2 year old birthday update and party details, and I missed Ryan's 5th birthday update and party details.  Life is busy, blogging slips down on the priority list.  So instead of trying to back track, here is my post about my precious boys.  Hopefully I will still get to posting about their parties.  I had a lot of fun planning all the details and would love to share.

So as of today- Ryan is 5 years 3 months old and Patrick is 2 years 4 months old.

Patrick-

-His personality makes us laugh and shakes our heads all day.  He is funny, charming, moody, a trouble maker, and super cuddly.
-Patrick is the type that will do something wrong, know he is about do get in trouble, so he will do something really super cute immediately after so that everyone laughs and smiles and suddenly he is no longer in trouble (my brother was very good at this trick too, I know it well).
-He is still sleeping in his crib and in diapers, but we plan to start transitioning both things this summer.
-He occasionally goes on the potty, and when he does we have to have a big celebration
- Patrick can be a bit of a couch potato (he gets it from his Daddy).  Umizomi, Little Einsteins, and Paw Patrol are current favorites.
-Talking is coming slow for him, just like his brother.  But he is a very good communicator and the words are slowly catching up.
-He calls his brother Yaya and he is in love with him!
-Sleep habits are pretty routine- in bed around 7-7:30, sleeps til anytime between 6-7am and takes a 48 minute nap (I'm serious, all  naps are exactly the same length, we have still never gotten a nap over 1 hour).
-He is in the "I do" stage which I kind of love.  He wants to try to do everything himself and he is determined to keep up with his big brother.
-We registered Patrick for school, so he will be starting preschool 3 mornings a week in the fall (ahhhh!)
-Patrick can be stubborn.  He know what he wants and that's it.  If he doesn't get it, tempers flare.  But luckily the tantrums never last long.
-  He is a picky eater.  By time we get to dinner he pretty much eats nothing.  I am a mean mom.  I make one dinner for the family, he eats it if he wants, or he eats nothing for dinner.  I am not starting the bad habit of multiple meals or eating junk for dinner.  I am not overly concerned because he eats a great breakfast, a decent lunch, and has lots of healthy snacks all day... so I know the kid won't starve.  He will start eating dinner again when he is ready.
-On the food topics- his favorite foods are pouches, bananas, avocado, yogurt, veggie straws, waffles with sun butter, and pasta.
-He finally has his own friend.  Up to this point its been all Ryan's friends or his cousins.  But now he has play dates with his little buddy Rex and they have a lot of fun together.  Its very cute.
-My favorite part of the day is Partick cuddles.  He loves to hug and kiss and cuddle up in my lap.  I think he would curl back inside the womb if it was possible.
-Patrick's the kind of kid that everyone loves.  He is cute, he puts on a show for everyone, he is a social butterfly, people just  love him.

Ryan-

-Ryan brings me all the greatest parts of my day and all the hardest parts of my day!  He is a lot of love, personality, emotions, and energy every single day.
-Recently Ryan has been blowing us away with his knowledge and questions and quests to learn about all these fascinating topics.  He is obsessed with whales, sharks, underwater life, scuba diving, dinosaurs, and traveling around the world.  And the obsession is not just about playing with these kind of toys.  He wants to read books (like real encyclopedia style books), watch documentaries, and tell everyone about what he is learning.
-When you ask Ryan what he wants to be when he grows up he says "a scuba diver that can take pictures and videos of whales and sharks and use to it do research to learn more about them and teach kids" or to work at a rescue center for sea animals that have been injured.
-He also has become very artistic.  His teachers always pull me aside to tell me how great his imagination and art skills are.  We are looking into an art summer camp for him.
-He loves people, all people, all the time.  Everyone he meets he wants to become friends with.  He has invited many grocery store clerks or target employees to our house for dinner.
-Ryan is currently enjoying playing soccer on Saturday mornings and going to his gymnastics class.  He is doing much better with following the structure and improving his skills.
- We are working everyday with his ADHD behavior needs and his sensory issues.  Its been a tough few months.  He goes to OT once a week and I am constantly doing research, going to seminars, watching webinars, to find out more about what I can do about helping him.  As he gets older, we are encountering new more challenging issues with his ADHD and compulsive behavior.  Its a lot of work to keep up with but we are trucking along.  I hope to do a separate post about this soon, I don't want my Ryan update to be all about his disability.
-Ryan is very very emotional- from the highest highs to the lowest lows.  When he is excited he is barely able to contain his joy, and when he is upset he cries to the point of throwing up and not breathing.  The pendulum can swing from one emotion to the next in just seconds.  He keeps me on my toes.
-This kid is LOUD, like really loud all the time.  I didn't realize how loud he was until he wasn't around for a few days and the house was eerily quiet.  He talks loud, laughs loud, cries loud, plays loud.
-Just like I was saying about Patrick, Ryan is full of love.  Lots of cuddling, hugs, kisses all the time.  Many days the boys fight over who gets to cuddle with mom- I don't mind this at all!
-Ryan loves to be outside, exploring in the woods, doing yard work with Daddy, swinging on the swings.  He is very excited for summer to be outside all the time.


Now lets take a quick peak at their relationship as brothers.

-They love each other so much, its very sweet.
-Ryan loves to protect Patrick, he gets very worried about him and making sure he is safe all the time.  But at the same time he can totally body slam him in a wrestling match and not thing twice about it.
-Ryan wants to be just like Mike, and Patrick wants to be just like Ryan, so this leads to a lot of following each other around and fighting over toys.  When they all play together, Ryan wants to do whatever Mike is doing, and Patrick then wants what Ryan wants, so even though we have a room full of toys, all three boys are fighting over the same sword (or dinosaur, or truck, or lego piece).  It is an odd dynamic because their love for each other and want to play together leads to lots of fighting and tears on a daily basis.
-Both boys are very boyish boys.  They are loud, like to get dirty, wrestle a lot, play with bugs, constantly on the move.  The activity level in our house is always very high from the minute their eyes open until they fall asleep at night.
-We have reached the fighting and tattling stage.  Its tough and I don't think its going away anytime soon.  Like I said they fight over toys  ALL OF THE TIME, and we get a lot of "Patrick hit me" or "Yaya gave me boo boo".  We have a lot of lessons in sharing and keeping your hands to yourself in our future.
-But they can't leave the room without giving each other hugs and kisses and saying I love you, 100 times a day.


I am sure I could go on and on about the little things that make me smile every day, or the little things that make me want to pull my hair out (like Patrick's habit to poop in the bath tub or Ryan's ability to leave a mess wherever he goes) but at least I got some of their little personality traits down on paper!

Seriously I need to get better at posting more often, then I don't want to worry about getting it all down at one time.

The Adventures of Making Adult Friends

I have been saying for a while that making adult friends is like dating.  But events of the past few weeks has proven this to be more true than I was even realized!  So I will say it again, making adult friends (after college and marriage and kids) is the same thing as dating!

I have been very blessed with the very best friends, and they have been in my life since as early as elementary school.  The same group of girls has been with me through every detail and drama and bad hairstyle I have had for the past 18 plus years.  I never really needed to make new friends.  But the past year lead many of my best friends heading in different directions.  They will forever be my best, the friendships are not going anywhere, but I became acutely aware that I needed to find some girl friends closer to home.  Ones to go out for a girls night with, or to bring their kids over for a pizza night every once in a while.  I couldn't drive South Jersey or Maryland or fly to NC every time I needed some girl time.  That is what started me on my adventure to find some new adult friends

Back to why it feels a lot like dating- Some examples-

-It can be awkward at first, you have to the play the whole getting to know you game.  At first it may seem like you have mutual interests, but after a few times hanging out all of a sudden you realize you are very different people.  What do you do next, keep working on it?  Let it go?  It's a bit weird.

-Sometimes you find out they are crazy.  Unfortunately I have had a few issues of this recently.  Girls can be drama filled and over the top and everything is the end of the world.  I don't have time for this in my life, I haven't dealt with that since middle school, and I certainly have no interest in drama filled, crazies in my life as an adult.  But just like some of the weirdos we have dated, its hard to shake them.

-Playing the should I call/text game.  I know this sounds funny but it's true.  You meet someone you think would totally be a great new friend.  But you don't know if they feel the same connection (haha I am laughing as I write this).  So do you call them?  Find something random to text them about?  When is it okay to reach out and ask them to do something?  Or now that you have hung out a few times, and you feel like you are always the one making the plans, do you keep initiating or do you stand back and wait to see if they reach out.  Oh the stress and anxiety over trying to read the situation.

-Deciding what to wear.  Women know they really only dress for each other, right?  So I seriously found myself in a situation last week over thinking what to wear for dinner out with a new friend.  We have known each other for a while now, see each other at daily school drop off in our yoga pants, even had a few social events we both attended... but we had never been out for a girls night just the two of us.  I didn't know what her usual dress would be for a girls night (with my high school girl friends I can pretty much predict what each one of them will be wearing to any situation because we know each other so well).  Was our night a casual jeans and flats and a sweater night, hair in a pony tail running out the door kind of night?  Or would it be more of a "yes we are free, lets get all dolled up for a night on the town" kind of night?  I went somewhere in the middle, and luckily it turned out to be just fine.

-Continuing with the same night, it was all about trying to figure each other out- are we ordering full meals, or just bar foods?  Would we split some appetizers or like totally different things?  Do we pick up this small stuffed endive and eat it whole or cut it up into little pieces (yes this moment actually happened and we laughed a  lot about it).  We each have our own norms when it comes to going out with friends, but we had to get use to each others.

- But lastly, and just like with dating, if you meet someone who is a good fit, then all these silly little things become easy.  Just like when meeting a guy that turns into a real relationship, it should be easy and fun and none of the stress I described above.   It's the same with making new friends.  If it's easy and fun and you enjoy having this new person in your life, then it probably means it will be a good friendship.  If its awkward and work and doesn't make you happy- cut the losses and move on.

Again, I am lucky to have my girls.  We know what we will wear, what we will order to eat, what kind of activities we like to do.  We know who wants to go out and get a bit tipsy and who would rather sit in sweats on the couch and chat.  We know each others quirks and have no judgments about them.  We understand each others relationships with our husbands and parents and inlaws and children.  We can be ourselves 100% all of the time and know that know matter what these are my best friends that I can go to whenever I need them.

I am hopeful that going through this friendship dating game will lead me to a few more new friends that live a little closer to home.  Until then I will blog about my adventures!

When Christmas Doesn't Go as Planned

It's Christmas night, 7:30 pm, and I have enough time to sit down and write a blog post.  Something is wrong with this picture.  After all the planning for a magical Christmas day, I am currently sitting on the couch by myself watching lifetime movies.  This year Christmas did not go as planned.

Apparently even though I shopped months in advance, I got all the best gifts, wrapped them in color coordinated piles for each kid, prepped lots of food, coordinated plans with all of our family... that didn't stop the flu from hitting our house.  Patrick started with the high fever on Tuesday and it has not gone away.  He is miserable and lethargic and is on day 4 of this nasty virus (to the doctor we go tomorrow).  Then just to make things even better, it hit Mike yesterday.  He is out for the count with the same high fever, body aches, and misery.

So this morning Ryan jumped out of bed with excited that it was Christmas morning, but we had to drag Patrick and Mike down to join in the excitement.  Patrick cried through most of present, he had no interest at all, and Mike was barely awake to watch the kids open Santa's surprised before he went back to bed for the rest of the day.

Mid-day I realized that neither Patrick or Mike could attend our family Christmas dinner, and Mike was in no shape to take care of Patrick.... sooooo that meant I had to stay home also to take care of them both.  I didn't want to ruin the day for Ryan, so I sent him up with my parents.

So here I sit, Patrick is in bed, Mike never left bed, and Ryan is out with my family.  I will admit I am a bit lonely, this is definitely not how I pictured Christmas.  I am missing my kids and husband and my cousins and extended family,  BUT I am sipping champagne, enjoying the quiet and thinking about how even though this was not our perfect Christmas, we are still such a fortunate family with so much to be thankful for.

Christmas can be overwhelming and stressful for parents, but that is not the point and life happens anyway.  I am making this a glass half full moment and enjoying whats left of this holiday, and praying that our family is healthy soon so we can enjoy all of Santa's goodies and the plans we have all week.

Anyway- Merry Christmas to all, and hopefully next Christmas we will be able to all celebrate!

Here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get today:

Thankful at Thanksgiving

Both the boys are sleeping (that is officially the first thing on my "Thankful list") and I just sat down to start making Black Friday Christmas shopping lists.  Then the sentimental part of me got to thinking about the actual holiday of Thanksgiving and what its all about.  So instead of writing my shopping list, I am going to write out my thankful list.

Thanksgiving 2015 I am thankful for (in no particular order):

1.  Sleeping children (see above)
2.  Target- I could literally shop their daily.  The store makes me happy, has everything, and the cartwheel app is just amazing.  Love it!
3.  My hardworking husband.  He works his butt of at his job and works his butt off at home.  And manages to be a pretty awesome father and husband in between it all.
4. My mom, who is superwoman and my Dad, who is so strong in recovering from his surgery
5.  My healthy, growing, adorable boys, Ryan and Patrick
6.  Coombs Chiropractic, where I have a great flexible job that I enjoy and a place that keeps my whole family healthy
7.  Disney World!  We are going again in April and any time I am planning a Disney vacation I am a happy girl.
8.  Christmas- I love the whole Christmas spirit and getting to spend it with my kids is so magical.
9.  Adele.  Her songs get me!
10.  Peppermint Mocha season
11. Red wine- lots of red wine
12.  Having best friends that have been my best friends for more than my half my life!  I would not survive without having my girls to fall back on.
13.  Finally making some new adult friends now that my besties have moved so far.  I have said it before, finding adult friends is like dating, so I am happy to finally feel confident in a few new friendships.
14.  Our new house is slowly coming along and feeling like home.
15.  My new juicer that I got for my birthday.  Having lots of fun playing around with new juice recipes.
16.  My crunchy moms facebook group- its my first place I go with any natural/holistic/health related questions.
17.  Amazon Prime- Free two day shipping, enough said!
18.  Cheesy chick novels. I have been on a reading kick recently and only want to read light hearted books.  I am loving my easy reads.
19.   God-  I am not overly religious, but I find myself being drawn more and more towards the Bible and prayer and I am thankful for feeling comfort in prayer.  Next step, finding a church I love.
20.  Date nights-  I don't get them enough, but very thankful for when we do.
21.  Ryan's teacher Mrs. Cappello.  He has had a rough start to the school year, and she has been wonderful with helping us through the transition.  In the same thought, we are also thankful for his new amazing OT, Alex.
22.  Car ride naps-  Patrick is on a nap strike, so thank goodness for the car!
23.  Cheap flights to North Carolina.
24.  Family time.  In our busy life, I look forward to and appreciate time when just the four of us get to just chill out and be together.
25. Chocolate- I am obsessed these days.


Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!!

DIY Ninja Turtle Halloween Costumes

This year I decided to do something I have never done before.  I made the boys their Halloween costumes!  And I learned how to do some basic sewing in the process.

Ryan declared very early on that he wanted to be Leonardo (because he is the leader) and that Patrick had to be Raphael (because Red is one of his favorite colors).  Ninja turtles are super popular right now, so I had plenty of options for buying one, but I decided to make it myself for the following reasons:

1.  The store bought ones were a little cheesy.
2.  Knowing how popular the turtles are, I also knew that there would be a million little boys in the same costume.  So I wanted them to be a little bit different.
3.  Ryan is in big kid sizes and Patrick is in young toddler sizes, so even if I did buy them at the store they would be in different costumes.  I could not find a costume in a size 24 mo and size 6 that were matching, and appropriately Leo and Raph.
4.  My mom use to make our costumes when we were kids, I wanted to continue that tradition.

Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I was able to search TMNT costumes and found many bloggers with step by step directions.  I needed all the help I could get.  I picked this particular tutorial because it was very detailed and I felt like I could actually do it.

I did need to employee the help of my mother.  I can not sew, haven't done it since 8th grade home-ec, and this costume required a decent amount of sewing.  I pretty much following the bloggers directions step by step.  I also bought white sweat pants and shirts from Amazon and then used  RIT fabric dye to get them green.  I mixed the Kelly Green and the Dark Green color to try to get a little bit darker and more turtle like then the one in the tutorial.  At first I was afraid the color came out too dark, but once it was put together I think it was perfect.

I also decided to buy the boys turtle shells off of Amazon instead of making the shells because I wanted something a little more sturdy.  Dress up clothes go well beyond Halloween in our house, so it was worth the money to have turtle shells they can play with all year round.

I was able to buy all of the supplies at AC Moore or on Amazon.  Once I had everything together, the work did not take long.  One evening I dyed the sweats and washed/dried them to be ready for the the next evening.  I decided to use the stove top method for dying the clothes.  I thought it was the quickest and the cleanest way to do it.  I was nervous to put the dye through my brand new washing machine.  I was happy with the stove top results.  Then it took my mom and I a few hours the second night to cut the fabrics, pin everything in place, stuff the chest, and sew on all the pieces.

The costume turned out perfect.  I was happy and the boys were even happier!  They looked adorable and we now have a simple turtle costume in our dress up box for playtime.  Thanks again The Scrap Shoppe Blog for the inspiration and tutorial on a great boys Halloween costume.

Tons of pictures coming soon!

Taynor Family Randomness- Fall 2015

I wish I could blog daily, I seriously have enough going on in my head that I could come up with a topic of interest every day.  I am going to try to make that a goal of mine, to write more often.  Lets see how I do!

But for now, here is a bunch of random things going on in our world.  I'll be very general, and hopefully a lot of these topics I can go into more details about in later posts (ya know, now that I am going to blog more often).   So here it goes.

- We have been in our new house almost 1 year!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  We are still very much in fix it up mode, and we have the "what should we do about..." or "What project should we start next" conversation every day.  Top of the priority list is to finish the basement, patio and backyard landscaping, dining room, and maybe upstairs bathrooms.  In the meantime we have been tackling smaller items- setting up a craft area in the playroom, Mike is building cabinets and cubbies in our front hall closet, front of the house landscaping, 20 privacy trees in the backyard around the base of the hill, painted the boys bathroom rainbow, and hopefully some new light fixtures soon.

-We love our house, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that we are considering moving.  I would say its about a 50/50 shot right now, but things in life keep popping up that suggest maybe it would be a good idea to move out of state (craziness with Mike's company, craziness with Toms River, my parents interest in possibly retiring out of state, financial reasons, they are building something mysterious behind our property, and of course the fact that many of my life-support friendships are now out of state).  Who knows- no real plans yet, all just pretend.

-I miss my friends like crazy!  And Ryan misses his friends... and Mike misses his guys.... you get the point.  We are really really missing all the important people that have moved far away.  And not just my North Carolina people-  my South Jersey and Maryland girls too.  Everyone is just to damn far away.  I read an amazing blog once that described this feeling.  I want to know what they do each day, and see how they decorate their homes for the holidays, and watch their kids grow up, and see the new sweater they got on sale last week.  All those things that are so normal when your best friends are near buy, that get lost when suddenly they are far away.

- We bough another house the end of August.  We officially own three homes and rent two.  Mike has always wanted to dabble in real estate investing, so this year we took advantage of some opportunities.  Let me tell you, financially balancing three homes is not easy.  Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

- It's been a busy travel year for us.  Since April we went as a family to Tampa, the OBX, as a couple to Colorado for my cousins wedding, NC twice, Mike on a guys trip, me on a girls trip to Disney.  Ryan and I are going next weekend to visit all our buddies in North Carolina, but then that will probably be it for awhile until our spring family Disney trip (Staying at the Polynesian this time- woohoo)!

- I am learning more and more and more about what healthy living is really all about.  Its become a major passion recently.  I am constantly learning and researching and really feel like I finally get how it all works.  Things I have questioned my whole life finally make sense.  This particular topic really needs a post of its own, I can't wait to share some of the changes we have made.  Its been about a 4 years journey- pretty much since Ryan was born (motherhood changes everything), but the past year I have really become confident in my knowledge and some of the changes we have made as a family.

- My sister just ran the NYC marathon on Sunday and she killed it!  We all went up to watch her, what an amazing experience.  It was her first marathon and she finished in 3:42.  I am incredibly proud of all her hard work and dedication.  Congrats to all NYC marathon finishers.

-So are you going to have another baby??  That's the question I get asked almost daily.  For a while I said I wasn't going to even talk about it until after our vacation to Colorado.  Well that was 3 months ago.  I have no updates or news as of now, but I can say we sure do hope to be able to have a third baby.  Only time will tell.

-I have been super sentimental about my boys recently.  I could explode with love each day.  I LOVE being their mom, like seriously love it!  I have always loved them, but something recently has made me slow down and actually appreciate and fall in love with each day.  I feel like I can appreciate that they won't be this small forever, and that time is going fast.  So I want to take in every day and every stage and make a million memories, because before long they will be big boys, then preteens, then teenagers (ahh scary), and eventually adults with wives and I  will no longer be the most important woman in their lives.  My point being- having toddlers and preschoolers is SO MUCH FUN, and I am going to love it instead of getting annoyed by the hard parts.

-Speaking of the boys- lets do a brief update on both of them:

Ryan
-He is 4 years and 8 months.
-He loves dinosaurs, ninja turtles, fire fighters, police men, power rangers, sharks, sea creatures, and as always, trucks.
- His imagination is UNBELIEVABLE.  Like, crazy smart thinker.  Every day we act out a new story line full of adventures.
-His newest obsession is crafts.  When he was younger he had no interest in coloring or drawing, but I guess he is making up for it now.  He spends hours every day coloring, cutting, gluing,  stapling, taping, painting, writing, making stories, decorating my house, etc.  He calls them projects and he spends most of his day at home working on projects.
-The start of the school year was a struggle.  But his teacher has been fantastic working with him, we changed occupational therapists, I adjusted his vitamins and refocused on his diet and nutrition, and I think he is starting to settle in and show some improvements.  He has very classic ADHD symptoms and is dealing with many sensory processing issues, but we are doing so much to help him with his brain/body connection and I believe we are already seeing some changes.
-One major plus to our house is that the back yard is our own personal woods.  He can spend hours exploring, gathering acorns and leaves, swinging on the swings, doing obstacle courses.  He loves being outdoors.
-Daddy is Ryan's favorite person in the world.  Everything Mike does is just "soooo cool".  If Daddy does it, Ryan wants to do it.  If Daddy likes it, Ryan likes it (this specifically hurt when he decided to root for the MEts this year instead of the Yankees- booo)
-Ryan is a big bag of emotions and he is really good at talking about them.  Its kind of cute to watch a little person go through the range of being happy, then anxious, then sad, and then process it and go back to being happy again.
-He is super protective of his brother.  He watches him closely when they explore in the back yard, and is always checking to make sure the gate on the stares is closed.  He gets worried when Patrick crying and wants to know where he is at all times.  They are turning into best buds.
-Ryan prays to God every single night to have a baby sister.  Man he is putting the pressure on.
- There are little things that Ryan is doing recently that really shows his independence growing.  Things that are not a big deal really, but to me they are big signs of him growing up. Some examples: he gets up in the middle of the night and uses the bathroom and then goes right back to bed without needing my help.  I only know because I normally hear the toilet flush.  He can swing himself on the swings for a very long time.  He picks out his clothes, gets dressed on his own, puts the dirty clothes in the hamper, without needed a lot of prompting.  He makes his bed most mornings.  Sometimes he washed the dishes after dinner without being asked (and actually really cleans them, not just play in the water).  He plays independently for much longer stretches of time.  Little things that are signs that he is really growing up before my eyes
- Oh Yea, his very favorite song is Drinking Class by Lee Bryce.  He knows every word.  Proud mamma moment, I guess :)

Patrick
-1 year and 10 months old
- The almost two stage is hitting us hard.  Boy is strong willed.
-He is so friggin cute and he knows it.
-He knows what he wants, and knows how to throw a fit til he gets it.  But he can also switch on the big smile and flirty eyes in a second.
- Like most second children I would assume, he wants to do everything that Ryan does.
-He is incredibly stubborn- but I believe he has been that way since the day he was born, including during labor.
-He is also incredibly love-able and cuddley.  He loves to snuggle and offers hugs to everyone, included strangers.
-His favorite songs are Let It Go from Frozen, Shake your Sillies Out, and also Drinking Class.
-Donald Duck aka Quack Quack is Patrick's favorite character and stuffed animal.
- He won't go anywhere without his school bus.  Some kids have loveys and some have teddy bears... Patrick's comfort object is a school bus.  Its very cute.
-He is suddenly giving me a hell of a time with sleep again.  He was awful til he turned 1 year old.  After that he fell into a good routine.  Right to bed with  no problems between 6:30-7 and up between 6:30-7 most mornings.  Some days earlier but not the usual.  Then his naps were never great, an hour at best.  But he would go right down on his own without any fuss.  Then on Saturday everything changed.  He refuses to take a nap during the day and just cries hysterically for hours even though he is exhausted, he refuses to fall asleep at night, up to 2 hours of crying each night before he falls asleep standing up or finally gives in and lays down, and then up for the day by around 5am.  The tears have been starting just by mentioning nap time or bedtime, and he does whatever he can to try to stall and avoid going up to his room.  He is beyond exhausted.  We have been pretty miserable all week.  Not sure whats going on, or how to change it... but it sucks to see him so upset.  Fingers crossed and lots of prayers that he settles back into his happy routine soon.
- He eats like a teenage boy- that is all.
-Getting him in and out of the car seat is a full blown wrestling match.
-He is a slow talker, even slower than Ryan I think.  He has some basic animal sounds (dog, cat, sheep, cow), Mama, Dada, Gigi, Bubba, Uh-Oh, Yes, Bus, Quack Quack, Snack, Go, and NaNA (banana) .  That is about it.  He can do some sign language, and he is pretty good at letting us know what he wants in non-verbal ways.  BUT I do think life will get a lot easier for all of us once he starts picking up a few more words.  We have many frustrated moments of whining and tears because I have no idea what he is trying to say to me.
-He is generally calm and happy and can go with the flow.  He plays well by himself and can be very silly.

Well I think I have gone through a lot of topics I wanted to touch on.  Hopefully I will be back very soon to talk about some hot topics, or whatever else pops into my mind between now and then.  Until next time...

My Boys- an update

It’s been far too long since my last post about the boys.  My lack of recent blog posts can be a testament to the fact that my two little love bugs are keeping me on my toes these days and our days are busy from sun up to sun down.  But I love it!  My brain tends to swirl around with things I would love to write about, but usually I can’t stop what I am doing to sit down and actually type.  So this particular post might seem unorganized and scattered, but I have about 20 minutes of free time while Ryan is in OT so I am going to give it a shot.  Here is a general update of my boys!

Ryan-

4 and a half years old

42 inches tall and 45lbs

Still a blondie with blue/green/gray eyes

-Ryan is my sensitive, dramatic, sweetheart!  And when I say this I mean to the extreme.  He is VERY sensitive, and VERY dramatic, and SUPER sweet.  Everything he does it to the extreme.  He can go from the happiest kid on the block, to having the most terrible meltdown I have ever seen in a matter of seconds.  His highs are high and the lows are low.  But he loves very strongly and he loves everyone!  

-Boy this boy is active.  From the moment his eyes open until he finally falls asleep at night, he is on the move.  There are definitely pros and cons to this.  Its great to see him always active and playing and exploring, he still won’t even sit down through a TV show.  He runs and swings and jumps and swims and wrestles and plays non stop.  BUT there is a time when we wish he was able to sit still and focus on one task for longer than 30 seconds.  Independent play is still a work in progress, he likes to play with others.  I end most days exhausted from constantly being on the go.  I think these are good characteristics for him in the future…. as long as it doesn’t get him in too much trouble at school.

-Ryan is “one smart cookie” as he calls himself.  But seriously he is!  He is not smart in the “I know all my letters and numbers and can read at a young age way”, all those things require him to sit and practice which is not a strong suit.  He is smart in the sense that he asks deep insightful questions, he analyzes everything, he remembers everything, he is intuitive and a problem solver, and he can recall random information about any topic after just briefly hearing about it.  He stumps me with tricky questions on a daily basis and I am so glad Google is available so I can get the answers for his questions.  He holds very adult like questions with perfect strangers and he is always asking WHY.  

-My grandfather Poppy use to call me “yack yack gab a lot” (a nickname which also got passed down to my cousin Jessie and my sister) and I am sure if he was still here with us, he would pass it right along to Ryan.  This kid can talk!  He can talk to anyone about anything for any length of time.  Just this morning he was following the spanish speaking cleaning ladies around the house telling them all about our most recent vacation.  He makes friends instantaneously with anyone as soon as he walks in the room.  Everyone he meets knows that Mike had poison ivy this spring, and I was away at a wedding for 5 nights, and the rock he is carrying around was part of the Rocky Mountains.  

-Up until recently Ryan would really obsess over one thing at a time (like trucks for the past 2 years), but his interests are definitely starting to expand.  He really loves all the normal boy things- super heros, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dinosaurs, trucks, Planes Fire and Rescue, Paw Patrol, riding his bike, swinging on the swings, snakes and bugs (gross), baseball, and pretty much anything that Dad likes- you know because dad is SOOO COOL.  The other day when I asked him what is the one thing he still wants to do before summer is over, his answer was “yard work with dad”.  Funny kid.

-And just some random things- he is still a pretty good eater, he eats much healthier than the rest of the family.  He wakes up around 7am and is in bed around 8 and only naps occasionally.  He is always playing pretend.  He has huge feet.  He is about a size 5, we recently dropped the “T”.  He played soccer for the first time this year and like it so we are going to try again this fall.  This summer he learned to swim on his own with no bubble.  He can jump off the side and swim across the pool by himself.  He goes to OT twice a week and speech once  a week (more details on that another time).  He is extremely sensitive to noise.  He still loves to cuddle- its normally a jerky get punched in the back style of cuddling, but he likes to be close.  Still allergic to eggs, nuts, and wheat.  He is finally 100% overnight potty trained, that took some time.  He is a great big brother and he tells me everyday he wants a baby again and this time make it a girl (I”ll do my best Ryan!).

Anyway I think that is about it for now.  I am sure I am missing some important characteristics, but that is what comes to mind when I think of my loveable 4 year old!

Patrick

1.5 years old

I acutally have no idea how tall he is or his weight, we are overdue for a doctor check up.  But my guess is he is small for his age.

His hair has gotten very blonde, curly and long.

Golden brown eyes- and a great tan lol

Currently wears size 18-24 months

-Patrick is super cute, and he knows it.  He smiles at people and gives them a cute little dimple because he knows that people are saying “oh he is so cute”.  His hair turned super blonde which surprised us all.  He definitely looks like a beach baby this summer.

-For the most part Patrick is easy going.  He definitely has his phases where he is whiny and clingy, but overall he is a good happy baby.  I do think teething bothers him a lot and recently he has been having some tummy trouble so he is a little off, but generally he returns to his normal personality.  

-After giving me a hard time about sleep for so long, he has fallen into a nice routine.  He is very easy to put to bed around 6:30-7pm and he sleeps through the night til anytime between 5:30-7am.  He still takes two naps, about an hour at 10am and another hour at 2 pm.  I would love to consolidate that to one longer mid day nap, but he is fighting the change.  It is a huge relief that putting him down is so easy these days.  The one wierd thing he still does is cry hysterically every single time he wakes up.  He goes from sound asleep to standing and screaming in just a second.  He has never woken up with a smile on his face or babbling to himself like most kids do.  I hope he grows out of this because its a harsh wake up call for him and the rest of us.  

-Patrick is a little slow on speaking.  He finally just started saying mama and dada in the last couple weeks.  Those are the only words he has.  I am going to give it another couple of months and then I will call the early intervention people to see if they are concerned.  He communicates very well in other ways- sign language, pointing, doing what we ask, responding to us, etc.- so I don’t think it is a hearing problem or a lack of comprehension, he is just slow to say actual words.  

-Right now Patrick loves to books “Moo Bah LA LA LA”  and anything else that has fun animal noises.  I guess you can say animals are his top interest right now.  That and Mickey Mouse.  Otherwise Patrick just does and watches whatever his brother is doing or watching.  

-He follows in Ryan’s footsteps in the activity department.  He loves to be on the move and to climb and slide and run.  Although he is a little bit better at sitting and playing by himself and he has much better rhythm when we have dance parties.

-Patrick is iPhone obsessed.  He loves to just sit and play on our phones.  Normally he is just scrolling through pictures and watching home videos, but he can navigate all the apps and find his PBS kids app or any of the games we have for the kids.  His biggest temper tantrums are when we take the phone away.  We are definitely trying to go through some iphone detox for him.  

-He is also a pretty good eater.  He eats a lot of food- a whole lot!  He has foods he won’t eat and meals where he is a bit picky, but generally he eats well.  We have been on the “everyone eats the same thing for dinner” plan since he was about 1.  If either boy doesn’t eat what we make for dinner, they don’t eat.  So far its working for us, if they have meals they don’t eat a lot, they always make up for it the next day.

-Patrick adores Ryan.  He loves to follow him around, chase him, wrestle with him, and basically copy cat him.  Its super cute to see the brother relationship forming so strong already.  

Anyway- we are all doing well and the boys are amazing!  I love being their mom.  It gets hectic and messy and exhausting but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I use to worry about never finding the right man to love, and now I get to love 3 every day!  Life is good.